Group Photo of the Participants in the Munich Conference (September 29, 1938)

Hitler had only reluctantly agreed to the Munich Conference, and he regarded the agreement signed there as a setback. His goal was war, not compromise. His negotiating partners, however, hoped to prevent a European conflict through a policy of appeasement. The photograph shows (front, from left to right) the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano.